Osage Wood Cradle Board & Photo
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GUEST:
I got them off of an elderly couple in southwest Tulsa. Went to a garage sale there first and bought some items off of them. And I told them I was an air conditioning contractor and they had an air conditioner on their motor home that was going bad, and also their home air conditioner was going bad so I took a look at them and they was wondering how to pay and I told them, "Well, you've got some things I'd be interested in if you want to do some trading." And that's how I ended up with them.
APPRAISER:
Did you have any idea what they were when...
GUEST:
Had no idea, uh, what they were. I just knew they was Indian artifacts. I liked the picture more than the board. I wasn't sure about the board.
APPRAISER:
I'm curious what kind of money value would there have been in the trade?
GUEST:
Probably around $600.
APPRAISER:
Is there a connection with the board and the photograph?
GUEST:
Supposedly she was the baby that was carried on this.
APPRAISER:
And she's Osage, I believe.
GUEST:
She's Osage Indian, right.
APPRAISER:
She's wearing a beautiful ribbon-appliqué robe, which was one of their specialties. These are very rare. The Pawnee and the Osage made these woodlands traditional cradles. These date back centuries. This particular one stylistically I would date from about 1890. It doesn't look like it was worked on with any modern tools.
GUEST:
Well, what about the paint? Is that actually paint or is that some kind of coloring made up by the Indians, or...?
APPRAISER:
That's probably a stain made up by the Indians.
GUEST:
Berries or something...
APPRAISER:
This board is missing its bow, which would have protected the baby and it's missing its straps, which hung down from the bow, and then the baby was wrapped with the board.
GUEST:
Was it basically leather?
APPRAISER:
Yeah, sometimes they used loomed beadwork that hung down from the bow and she was usually wrapped with a cloth around the board. It's hard to value things like this. They're scarce. They're not as flashy as a Lakota cradle or a Cheyenne cradle but you did very well trading it for some air conditioning services because I would suspect the photo's probably worth $300 or $400 just as a nice photo. The cradleboard, probably $3,000 to $4,000.
GUEST:
Is that right? Whoo!
APPRAISER:
It's a wonderful, very rare piece.
GUEST:
Made a good trade.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, great trade.
GUEST:
And made them happy, too.
Appraisal Details
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